Can You Take Your Ultrasound Technician Training While In High School?

Can you take your ultrasound technician training while in high school? The answer to this question is no. One of the basic requirements for any ultrasound degree is a high school diploma. This is the reason why you cannot study medical sonography while you are enrolled in a high school education. The best thing you should do in your high school is to ensure that the courses you are enrolled to are related to general health sciences. The subjects including anatomy, physics and biology and medical terminology are also required.

Sonography schools for training have different requirements for a student to be enrolled. The requirements depend on the degree that the student wants to pursue. The requirement for the one-year certificate in ultrasound sonography is any degree in medical science. That is why this certificate in ultrasound technology is best for medical doctors, physicians and other medical professionals. These medical professionals are holders of medical degrees that will enable them to complete the certificate easier. Furthermore, these professionals have the intentions to expand their expertise in medical sonography. The certificate can be used to acquire a credential known as Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation. This can be acquired from the ARDMS.

Diploma of associate degree in ultrasound sonography is required in some of the accredited four-year degree universities. With this, a high school student needs to study two-year associate degree before the enrollment for any training. Schools are becoming stricter nowadays because there is an increasing demand for skilled and qualified medical sonographers.

Although there are schools that require an associated degree, there are ultrasound tech colleges that permit high school graduates to enroll in an associate degree. After graduation, these technicians will be qualified for credentialing examinations.

The associate degree program and the bachelor degree programs are the best options for high school graduates to acquire ultrasound technician training. Associate degree programs commence after two years while the bachelor degree can be completed in four years. One of the most important things to assure is the accreditation of the schools where you want to enroll. The school must be listed in the CAAHEP. The CAAHEP is the accrediting body for the programs and schools that need certification to provide training. Calling their office or looking through their website to confirm about accreditation of schools is the best thing to do.

These two degrees in ultrasound sonography can be acquired online programs aside from schools. Cautions should be done especially for online programs because many of these are not certified by the CAAHEP to provide training in ultrasound technology.

In order to complete the ultrasound tech training, students are required to render clinical training. The length of the training depends on the degree and school where you are enrolled in. Students completing online programs are not exempted to the clinical internship for ultrasound sonographers. These clinical internships are done in training institutes for the online degree programs and for the degrees acquired from schools; the school can let the students do training in hospitals, doctor’s offices, and medical clinics. The purpose of this training is to provide hands-on experience for the future technicians and to familiarize themselves with the duties and responsibilities of the ultrasound tech.

In a word, while in high school you are not qualified to take ultrasound technician training but you can do many things to prepare for the completion of the degree once secondary education is over.